Introduction
A framework is a foundation on which you can build your marketing operations program. If you want to make sure you’re getting the most value from your resources and investing in the right opportunities, then you need a solid marketing operations framework. While the term “framework” may seem intimidating, it’s not as complicated as it sounds. In this post, we’ll break down what a marketing operations framework is, how your team can use it to build your program, and how to create one for yourself.
What is a marketing operations framework?
A marketing operations framework is a process for managing the day-to-day operations of your marketing team. It’s a comprehensive set of tools and processes that align with your business goals and strategy, helping you to create high-performance teams and drive growth.
In other words, it describes how your team will work together to achieve success—and how each individual role is responsible for achieving its goals.
The 5 key parts of a marketing operations framework
Marketing operations is a relatively new discipline. It is an intersection of several other disciplines, including:
- Marketing automation, which automates marketing processes like lead nurturing and lead scoring.
- Marketing tools and technology, including email management platforms like Hubspot or Act-On; CRM systems; web analytics tools such as Google Analytics; social media monitoring software like BuzzSumo, etc.
- The ability to measure the impact and effectiveness of campaigns (marketing analytics). This can be accomplished through A/B testing or using conversion optimization techniques like split testing.
Why a marketing operations framework is so important
A marketing operations framework is a comprehensive set of processes, tools, and best practices that every team in your organization can use to drive better results.
Why? Because it will help you achieve a variety of business outcomes:
- Operational efficiency and effectiveness
- Increased revenue generation from existing customers (and new ones)
- Reduced costs associated with customer acquisition, retention, and service
- Improved customer experience through more targeted messaging and targeted content delivery systems
Case study: How to create a marketing operations framework for your company
Let’s say that you want to lose 10 pounds in the next three months, but you haven’t been able to stick with any fitness plan for longer than a few weeks. The problem is that your brain isn’t used to thinking about this goal as an achievable one. Your brain thinks it’s unrealistic and therefore gives up before even trying, or it tells you that “you can do anything” and makes achieving goals seem like too much work.
By setting tangible goals first—which are defined as short-term objectives, usually within one year—you are making sure that there is a clear path towards achieving them. By defining these tangible goals before starting on the marketing operations framework itself, we create an environment where success is more likely due to how easy it will be for us all along the way to measure ourselves against what were previously considered impossible tasks (like losing 10 pounds!).
If you want to optimize your marketing resources, make sure you’re using an operations framework.
Now that you know what a framework is and why it’s important, it’s time to get your hands dirty. In this section, we’ll walk through the steps of creating a framework for your organization.
Here are the steps:
- Review existing frameworks in your organization and identify which one will work best for you.
- Identify the customer touchpoints that matter most to your business goals. Your marketing operations team can help with this step (if you have one). You may also want to talk with sales or customer service reps who interact with customers day-to-day; they’ll be aware of any pain points in their customer journey that could be improved by better marketing operations.
- List out key metrics associated with each touchpoint as well as how much time or money should be spent on each one per month/year/quarter/etc., depending on how long each phase of the campaign lasts. The more detail here, like estimated costs per email sent or visitor converted into leads, will allow you to start making better decisions about future campaigns based on performance data from previous ones!
Conclusion
Across the board, marketing operations frameworks have proven themselves useful for companies looking to take control of their content strategy and deliver more comprehensive marketing solutions. We have covered three different types of marketing operations frameworks that can be used within your organization in order to create a well-rounded approach to content marketing.
